Look, I'm not gonna argue with you that NYC has always been better than SF (it obviously has), but post-pandemic now the difference is even more stark. NYC's economy is much more diverse than SF's, and also has much more housing within city limits, to the point that it hasn't suffered nearly as much from the pandemic, and indeed right now is booming whereas SF is withering.
Ehn, SF is returning to its pre-2010 roots (heck, even the population in SF has fallen to the same level as it was in the 2000s).
The entire sofrware+hardware industry before the 2010s was south of Redwood Shores and the biotech industry was always situated in northern San Mateo County. Before the 2010s, SF was primarily a hub for the Northern California legal+investment banking industries, both of which cratered during the GFC.
There's a reason why "FiDi" is called that - SF used to be the Wall Street of the West until the GFC, and most private sector white collar jobs in the city back then were legal and finance related.
SF was a much different place pre-2010. And it's going to be rough getting back there from here. In particular the city's expenditures are way higher now (but without revenues to match), and the homeless crisis is way worse.
It's still as crummy now as it was then. I remember seeing drug addicts on market as a kid, as well as the gang crap in Hunter Points (what's now called Mission Bay - India Basin has been renamed Hunters Point) and Mission District.
The difference is Mission, Northern Tenderloin/"Lower Nob Hill", Western Addition/"Hayes Valley", and Hunters Point had been extremely gentrified at a shallow level by transient white collar workers and creative types (artists, musicians, etc) in their 20s and 30s (aka. Most SF HN commentators)
Neither group started families let alone sent kids to public schools in SF, nor were either group actively connected with electoral politics within SF (voting isn't connected), and the same issues that I saw in K-8 in SFUSD continue to persist.
Also, a massive proportion of SF's population cannot vote due to immigration status (around 40% last I checked). Add to that an addition 10-20% to represent unattached transplants and townies and the voting pie shrinks massively, so SF politicians end up pandering to the subset that votes instead
